NCAA West Regional

Much as I love my Carolina Squads, I have to go with the Stinkin Badgers.

8 Oregon vs 9 Oklahoma State

Oregon gets a break here, and Oklahoma has lost 6 of the last seven. Remember the days when how you did over the last 10 meant something?

5 Arkansas vs 12 Wofford

Fun Fact- these two teams combined to go 0-5 vs the top 25. This comes down to the SEC player of the year vs the Southern Player of the year. I’ll take the guy who was a shade under 18/9 in a decent conference.

4 UNC vs Harvard

Go Heels!

6 Xavier vs BYU/Miss

I’m banking on BYU here. Again, if I’m going down this year, I’m going down due to teams forgetting on how to shoot threes. UPDATE: Still picking Xavier to lose.

3 Baylor vs 14 Georgia St

RICO!! Dude is 6’8 and averaging 11.6 boards per game. Butler also is designed to shut down three point shooting. If only they could score.

7 VCU vs 10 Ohio State

VCU staggered down the stretch, going 9-5, but still won the A-10. Ohio State has a guy that is going to be RICH in the NBA. Think a taller Jason Kidd. I’m taking OSU here, but I’m not as confident as I should be on it.

2 Arizona vs 15 Texas Southern

Texas Southern is no pushover- take out the first part of the season (1-8) and they are 21-4 and on an 11 game winning streak. Arizona is going to run them out of the building in the second half with the depth and shpierior shooting.

Round 3

1. Wisconsin vs 8 Oregon

This could be a heckuva Rose Bowl. Wisconsin brings the defense, but Oregon’s football offense might be able to keep up with the basketball team. Wisconsin is going to shut them down.

5 Arkansas vs 4 North Carolina.

Not happy with this game. I’m taking my Heels, simply because Arkansas should be able to be kept of the boards unless Portis is in the game or they can draw him outside. With both Johnson and Meeks, they should be able to wear him down.

11 Miss vs 3 Baylor

I’m going with Baylor here. Again, to the power of RICO! I’ve had to change it up here, as I had BYU winning this game as well.

10 Ohio State vs Arizona

Arizona is just too good defensively here. The problem is going to be if D’Angelo Russell goes off on the world from deep. Arizona does crash the boards, so if Russell goes cold, they will take advantage.

Round 3

1. Wisconsin vs 4 North Carolina

Yeah, F* off.
Wisconsin moves on.

3 Baylor vs 2 Arizona

I’m still looking at that defense, and even though Baylor is pretty good at thier own right, the winner of the battle of the glass is going to move on. The problem here is Baylor’s offense can go cold in a heartbeat and Arizona does not play well in tight games. Since this is game 1 of the weekend, I’m going to guess that 1-3-1 zone isn’t going to be that big a shock. Arizona.

Finals

1 Wisconsin vs 2 Arizona

Can Wisconsin get back to the Final Four? That’s hard to do in the modern age. Both teams play great defense and can score on you. Wisconsin had problems with better teams, but Arizona stepped it up in big games but lost to teams they should never have. My big problem with Wisconsin is they play a slow mo game, and Arizona is very good at getting good looking, shooting 49% as a team. I’m going Arizona